Tuesday, February 03, 2004

MOFman Prophecies

"If done correctly, a meta data-based approach can allow for reuse of interface definitions, messages and other pieces of the integration puzzle. For reuse to happen, though, developers must be able to quickly and easily find previously developed pieces. A centralized repository approach is one way to let that happen...The Holy Grail for this technology is creating, managing and reusing meta data models that are then redeployed to execution engines to reduce the amount of code that needs to be developed manually."

"Vendors, including Redwood City, Calif.-based Informatica Corp. and Bournemouth, U.K.-based Adaptive, have implemented MOF for their warehouse tools and engines. Informatica’s SuperGlue helps to put context around information used in traditional enterprise application integration (EAI)...[it] collects, stores and helps to analyze meta data, including providing audit trails. “The value is in being able to see the dependencies and linkages between data,” Poonen explained. Six customers, including one federal government agency that Poonen could not name, currently use SuperGlue."

"Beyond technology, successful meta data-based integration will depend on corporate culture and practices. Not everyone agrees that a centralized “center of excellence” approach to integration meta data is an absolute given to make it work, but some methodology or approach clearly is -- especially if reuse is ever going to happen."

"By 2005, predict Gartner analysts, more than half of large organizations will have multiple sources of integration technology. “As that proliferation occurs, being able to recognize the use of meta data and have consistent use across all the different deployments becomes important,” said Thompson."